Maish Nichani has posted an article, “The Changing Face of University Websites“. The article takes a positive view of the latest redesigns coming from many institutions. Maish approaches the new designs from the positive viewpoint that institutions in this generation of web site redesign are adhering to web standards much more than before. XHTML and CSS are being widely adopted, information architecture is organizing the site and making it easier to access content, and home pages are “also showing a common structure”. RSS is being used, and branding is being applied more consistently throughout sites.
All of this is encouraging as Richmond looks to create the next generation of its web site. We’ve recently reorganized the support structure for the web and made plans to implement a new CMS. Once we have our new Web Services department up and running, I hope to see Richmond’s site come together according to many of the principles Maish outlines in his post.
